John Cena finally faced off against the Big Red Machine Kane at WWE’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view on Sunday night, and the match started off as everyone expected it would.

It was a brawl, just the way John likes it.

It’s no secret that Cena’s style is that of a street fighter, a worker who is not of the technical background it takes to consistently turn in a 5-star match. The fact is, John performed in this match the way he does nearly every time he’s in the ring.

He came out with guns blazing, and he did not back down from the fight.

The fact that Kane received some support from the St. Louis crowd is not surprising, though, it is a bit disappointing. After all, WWE creative has gone out of its way to encourage fans to hate everything about Kane, constantly putting him over as a monstrous heel.

But when you face John Cena, arguably the most embattled WWE Superstar of all time, you are likely going to get a pop. Despite all of the work that has been put into painting Kane as the old-school, hell-raising heel that he has notoriously been throughout his career, he did get a modicum of respect and cheers from the Royal Rumble crowd.

Cena did not waste much time before attempting some of his trademark moves out of his repertoire, but he was successfully blocked at nearly every turn. The pacing of the match was slow, but well timed, and it has served John well in the past. This match was no different.

Cena was finally able to take Kane off his feet, but he was then blocked by a vicious boot from Kane.

Kane was in his element, and his own timing was in full effect the longer the match went on. Though his style was of course adapted from that of his “brother,” the Undertaker's, Kane has done a nice job making it all his own through the years. At this point, he is less of a Taker clone than he is a true monster who looks original, yet familiar, in many ways.

The monster versus the superhero, a story that we all counted on, and one that was the theme of this match.

The bout, however, surprisingly ended in a double count-out. Surprisingly, not because I personally expected either man to gain a decisive pinfall, but because I had hoped that this match would have gone on just a bit longer.

Though the official match was over, the fight continued backstage, with Kane attacking Cena, steel chair in hand.

The brawl eventually led straight to the door of Zack Ryder, who had been set up with a room where he could watch the match by Raw interim general manager John Laurinaitis.

Cena has often been compared to Hulk Hogan, of course, and part of that similarity lies with the fact that Hogan did not often have many friends. The reason for that is that while Hogan had all the respect and admiration of other baby faces storyline-wise, anyone that got too close to him was often left for dead when Hogan was targeted by a heel.

This is very true in the case of John Cena, whose close friend, Zack Ryder, was choke slammed through the Raw stage last week and was once again attacked during this fight.

Wearing a neck brace, and dumped out of his wheelchair, Ryder was Tombstoned in the ring, and as Eve looked on, the crew came down and carried him off for the second time in as many weeks.

So that’s it, the big epic showdown between the confident superhero and the villainous monster, the one match that supposedly may have led to a Cena heel turn, ended with more questions than answers.

My immediate question is, what was accomplished as a result of this match taking place? Was any progress made by the double count-out that happened and the ensuing street fight that we saw afterward?

I found it interesting that right before the pay-per-view cut to a video package of the Rock, that Cole, in essence, made it sound as if Cena would now be looking forward to his WrestleMania match.

Really? So this great heat that has existed between Kane and Cena is now over, and it was nothing more than just a speed bump for John on the way to facing the Rock in Miami?

As I write this, the Rumble is still taking place, so the truth is, anything can happen. Who knows what will go down in the 30-man contest, or what the company will look like after this pay-per-view has ended?